"if i think that loving you could be just like a drug
i would try to burn you but i won't
it's all your graces, your deadly sins
love and hate you it's so intense
if i could burn you walk away not see you anymore
i would try to burn you but i won't

like drops of rain your love has no pain" ~Spank

After nearly a four year hiatious of sorts, Kidenthieves are back with their sophomore album on Extacy Record entitled ZeroSpace. To say this album is anything less than magnificent would be everything short of an understatement. The combined talents of Free Dominguez vocals and Bruce Somers, ZeroSpace takes quite a bit off of the frustration of the bands and many fans shoulders.

What really strikes me about this album is it's diversity in the sea of Curve and Garbage clones. Since the mid to late 90's there have been quite a few reproduction of the female fronted electro rock sound. But the diversity in the tracks on ZeroSpace is what makes all the difference. Kidneythieves experiment and combine aspects of Alt Rock, Industrial, Electronica, Trip-Hop, and Modern Breakz to make a unique and surprisingly enough cohesive disc. Having Producer/Writer Sean Beavan of Nine Inch Nails fame doesn't hurt either. The combined talents here lend to a record that is corrosive but still very full and that is important. It is too easy to create an electronic atmosphere that is sterile and cold. Sometimes that even, is the desired effect, but not on this record.

The album starts of hard and in your face. Which is very understandable, if I had a 4 year span I'd be right in there waiting to tear it up and Kidneythieves do just that. However, it's to say they do it with such a finesse they leave one to wonder where it all comes from. Tracks like Before I'm Dead, Black Bullet, and ZeroSpace show the true power of their style, with guitars blazing and break beats flying through the air in a some sort of sonic assault that is neither unpleasant nor unwanted. The use of the guitar panning skips through the different speakers in tracks such as Arsenal and Spank hit you from a myriad of different angles. It leaves the listener surrounded and subject to the Demands of the beautifully talented Dominguez voice.

"she's a time bomb, with her vibe on
she's gonna use it and surprise them
she's a time bomb, with her vibe on
they'll never know where she got her weapon." ~Arsenal

Just when she corners you and you think that you are done for, she releases such beautiful tones it presents the extremes of the duality in the mix. As if under some strange trance and makes all the aggression worth the trip in. Like they roped you in, using all the force and power available to them, only to show you that in the depths of their minds, things aren't quite so turbulent inside. There are tracks like Serene Dream which completely break the overall pattern of the cd. Probably one of the most beautiful tracks on the whole disc as well. Just acoustic guitar, piano, cello, and Free's voice. This track rolling into the crippling breakz of Amnzero proves the diversity in range. One of the last tracks, Crazy which is a cover of the Patsy Cline hit, originally left an odd taste in my mouth. However after listening to it couple of times I think it solidifies the mood that Kidneythieves are attempting to present on ZeroSpace.

This is a very good album, and fans of the previous works will not be let down. It hits harder, plays smoother, processes quicker, and reasserts the fact that the Kidneythieves are capable and qualifiable in more genres than they will probably be limited to. They'll go with the Electronic crowd, just as soon as the Goth/Indus, and Alt Rock, easily as I'm sure would love to be there. This is a smooth disc, one that ends too abruptly in my opinion and leaves me saying, "Damn, where do I get more of this?" I would highly recommend this album to anyone who loved the first and audiences of the Femme Alt Rock / Electronic variety.